Trailing Is the Disaffected New Web Show That You're Probably Not Watching

Get your checkbooks out, TV ecs: There's a new, semi-underground web series that mis the political inanity of Veep with the indifferent millennialness of _ Broad City_. It's called Trailing, and it's a show from comedian and jack-of-all trades Steven Phillips-Horst that takes us into the surreal world of political consulting.

In the show, Horst plays a disaffected intern working at an ill-fated political consulting firm that prepares campaigns for D-list clients. (For example: a student council president.) The boss on the show, played by_ 30 Rock_ alum Joanna Bradley, is the out-of-touch Michael Scott-esque presence, who looms over her twentysomething employees. Her face contorts at words like "hashtag" and "lesbian." She does not know how to user a printer.

Horst drew upon his own well of entry-level job horrors: While working on a campaign in Florida, he retweeted a lewd remark about Jesus from the state Democratic party's official Twitter account.

Season two, debuting Monday, May 18, starts with the heroic intern attempting to retrieve burritos for his coworkers. After pocketing the $400, Steven calls his roommate to deliver a suit he needs to wear to a fundraiser. At a deli. In Queens.

We talked to Steven Phillip-Horst and Bryan Chang, his partner at the show's production company Meerkat Media. The interview has been edited and condensed.

**GQ: First thing's first: Why are the episodes so short? **

**Steven Phillip-Horst: **We wanted it to feel tight because the things that I wrote were always kind of short.

**Bryan Chang: **We never really go in with a time constraint in mind. A lot of times we end up shooting more and cutting it down to make it tighter.

How do you write the show? What's the creative process like?

**SPH:**I started writing while I still had that other job, which the show is sort of inspired by. Back then I would really just come home and sort of isolate myself and write it all. Now, the process involves a lot more people. [Laughs]

BC: Steven's ideas are what ultimately make the show. The process for us after that is shooting it and finding the funniest ways to put things together. There are so many great improv moments. Editing becomes finding the best place to insert them all.

SPH: You get to think about how a pause from an improvised moment can make an entire scene funnier. Like, people who work in that political world that takes itself so seriously deserve skewering, and the people who are too serious to see it should feel offended.

It seems like you really nail what it's like to be young in the modern workplace. Were you motivated to give a voice to what young people are feeling?

SPH: I just feel like this creative economy is becoming this sort of hollow, meaningless world. There's just this endless flow of communications jobs that are so deeply pointless that all have this false sense of urgency. We all move to New York with this fantasy that it's like a movie, and we'll get to live this glamorous life! In reality it's like if you're really, really lucky, you may get to be a social strategist for Chipotle or something.

Not to rag on Chipotle. We love Chipotle.

One of the characters is based on one of your old bosses. Is that weird?

**SPH: **I don't know, I kind of hope my ex-boss sees it. I hope that she would be very offended.